Personas

7 Videos
status pause Introduction: What is a Persona? 01:30 status pause Getting Started 02:06 status pause Gather your Data (Research) 02:44 status pause Finding Patterns 02:46 status pause Adding a Narrative 01:50 status pause Checklist 02:41 status pause Putting Your Persona to Work 01:54
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Personas Part 5: Adding a Narrative

30 views • April 13, 2020

Personas
Part 5: Adding a Narrative

 

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It's time to get your Persona up on his feet and walking through life. Character traits are all well and good, but what people really want is a good.

Up to this point, we've studied our data and used our insights to form at least one persona. Now we get to have some fun. We're going to create a narrative for him.

Characters are all fine, but as one writer put it, no kid ever tugged on his mother's apron strings and pleaded: "Mommy, tell me a character study". There's nothing like a story to help relate to your personas as real people.

One technique is to take your persona through a typical day. This not only tells you things about the persona, it's also a great way to spot holes in his profile. The stuff you might have missed.

What does he do when he first gets up in the morning? Feed the fish? Or does he make his own breakfast? Does he pack a lunch or plan to grab something at work? And if so, where? Does he take the bus? Drive? Stop at the gym? Obviously, this is too much detail to enter into a template. But as an exercise, taking your persona through his day to day can raise issues or questions that shape his behavior, especially his buying habits.

Most importantly, relating to your persona in this way helps you to consider their priorities. What is important to this person? What guides their decision-making process? Is it ethics? Money? Personal well-being? One of the things we're trying to establish with this is whether this is a high- or low-level involvement product for the user.

Finally, Forrester Research did a study that found one of the most common flaws in personas they studied was a lack of narrative. Personas without any story were not compelling. That said, the narrative you come up with doesn't have to be a full-on day in the life.

It could be how that character left home as a young adult or how she found the apartment she loves so much and still lives in today. Whatever it is, make your persona narrative memorable and specific.

It's one of the most effective ways to ensure that your team members believe in their creation and return to it again and again.

Transcript Up to this point, we've studied our data and used our insights to form at least one persona. Now we get to have some fun. We're going to create a narrative for him.
Characters are all fine, but as one writer put it, no kid ever tugged on his mother's apron strings and pleaded: "Mommy, tell me a character study". There's nothing like a story to help relate to your personas as real people.
One technique is to take your persona through a typical day. This not only tells you things about the persona, it's also a great way to spot holes in his profile. The stuff you might have missed.
What does he do when he first gets up in the morning? Feed the fish? Or does he make his own breakfast? Does he pack a lunch or plan to grab something at work? And if so, where? Does he take the bus? Drive? Stop at the gym? Obviously, this is too much detail to enter into a template. But as an exercise, taking your persona through his day to day can raise issues or questions that shape his behavior, especially his buying habits.
Most importantly,
relating to your persona in this way helps you to consider their priorities. What is important to this person? What guides their decision-making process? Is it ethics? Money? Personal well-being? One of the things we're trying to establish with this is whether this is a high- or low-level involvement product for the user.
Finally,
Forrester Research did a study that found one of the most common flaws in personas they studied was a lack of narrative. Personas without any story were not compelling. That said, the narrative you come up with doesn't have to be a full-on day in the life.
It could be how that character left home as a young adult or how she found the apartment she loves so much and still lives in today. Whatever it is, make your persona narrative memorable and specific.
It's one of the most effective ways to ensure that your team members believe in their creation and return to it again and again.
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